Remembering Martin Luther King : Students celebrate diversity

    by Brian Shults, Roxanna Latifi, Brian Abrams and Ryan Buchanan

    TCC campuses joined in the celebration of the life of the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. last week.

    SE Campus took part in a community celebration Saturday.

    King's legacy has symbolized unity for Americans from every ethnicity, Elzie Odum, mayor of Arlington, said.

    "The four-day celebration in Arlington has shown how a community can come together in this way, and it shows how Dr. King's message can be accomplished," he said.

    Odum was one of several area residents at SE Campus' Martin Luther King Jr. Multicultural Festival.

    Local youths danced and sang in celebration of King's legacy. The performances ranged from schools to churches to TCC students, containing a variety of musical influences.

    After the festival, the mayor said that seeing the elementary school children celebrating the ideals of equality, for what might be the first time in their lives, was the most enjoyable aspect of the festival.

    "To see the kids performing together is wonderful. You have all sizes, shapes, hues and colors celebrating the dream of Martin Luther King together," he said.

    The festival's mistress of ceremonies, Kimberly Small, SE nursing student, agreed.

    "Seeing the youth perform is definitely the best. And seeing everyone come together today was nice because the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is not just a black thing. It is for everybody," she said.

    The youngest performers included the Ashworth Elementary Choir and Orchestra, Cornerstone Baptist Church Youth Choir and Al-Hedayah Academy's third grade class who contributed Middle-Eastern musical perspectives to the festival.

    Area business Septien Vocal Production added a Latino touch to the festival with performances by its members Lance Remington Septien, Anna Garza and Demi de la Garza. The TCC SE Singers performed classic American pop tunes such as Ease on Down the Road, under the direction of Marion Nesvadba.

    Local businesses and churches including Cooks Children's Hospital and One Church, One Child-DFW also participated, educating the community about their services.

    The festival's organizers include Rusty Fox, dean of educational services; Bob Phanelson, student development coordinator; Shayna Houp, speech and drama secretary; Amos Gaines, media manager; Dr. Judith Carrier, SE president, and Steve Smith, Nita Haliburton and Tonya Davis from student services.

    A group of children helped South Campus celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day last week.

    Celebrating the triumphs of the late civil rights leader, the Original King's Kids of America organization has traveled worldwide since 1985. The children range in age from 7 to 16. Twenty-five of the selected Kids, most in the sixth and seventh grades at Dunbar Middle School, praised the holiday in song and speech.

    Charles Huber, student activities director was pleased with the turnout of both students and employees.

    "We had a good response and a good program," he said.

    "Everybody seemed to appreciate it. It was well received," he said.

    The 30-minute program included students reciting excerpts from King's speeches, including I Have a Dream. The children also joined in singing God Bless America, We Shall Overcome and Let There Be Peace on Earth.

    A photo exhibit is open on NE Campus.

    Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, a photographic exhibit, is on view through Feb. 12 in the NE Campus Student Center.

    The exhibit is open Monday-Thursday 8 a.m.-9 p.m. and Fridays 8 a.m.Ð5 p.m.

    Created by the Texas Humanities Resource Center in Austin, a division of the Texas Council for the Humanities, the exhibit includes photos of King's life and career from 1929 to 1968.

    The display features 65 black-and-white action photographs, facsimiles of landmark documents and quotations by King.

    Research contributors include Dr. Thavolia Glymph, Minority Cultures Collection from the University of Texas at Arlington, Elmwood Foundation for the Arts and Humanities, Black Star, Flip Schulke, Bob Fitch and the Alabama Committee for the Humanities.

    MLK Day is the only federal holiday commemorating an African-American.

    A bill was passed in 1983 by both the House of Representatives and the Senate to make Martin Luther King Day an official holiday.

    President Ronald Reagan declared the third Monday in January a federal holiday to commemorate King's birthday.

    The holiday was originally introduced to Congress four days after King's assassination in 1968.

    Before the holiday was made official, 27 states observed Jan. 15, King's birthday, as a public holiday.

    The idea of a holiday celebrating Dr. King and the civil rights movement faced much opposition.

    Previously, George Washing-ton and Christopher Columbus were the only two individuals whom the United States honored with a national holiday. Many believed other Americans deserved a national holiday more than King.

    Some states adopted the holiday only after protest. Arizona was the last to acknowledge the holiday in 1992 after a threatened tourist boycott and much public demand, including a song by the political rap group Public Enemy, By the Time I Get to Arizona.

    King is considered by many as one of the most important figures in the civil rights movement.

    His most famous speech, I Have a Dream, was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Aug. 28, 1963.

    Martin Luther King Day serves as an introduction to Black History Month, celebrated in February..